Americans have been traveling in unseen quantities for more than a year and will soon have two new low-cost airlines.
Both hope to attract passengers by covering smaller routes on the United States network.
Avelo Airlines said on Thursday that it will start the flight to 11 destinations in Burbank, California this month. The new company plans to add more routes to the western United States as its Boeing 737 fleet grows.
Avelo was launched by a veteran executive of the airline, who believes that there is room for low-cost airlines, along with those already on the market.
“There are too few seats offered by low-cost airlines in the United States. That’s why we think the opportunity is huge, “said Andrew Levy, Avelo’s president and CEO. “Passengers really want a cheap way to get from point A to point B.”
Breeze Airways, the new idea of David Neeleman, the executive who helped launch the Canadian WestJet before founding JetBlue and the Brazilian airline Azul, is waiting to leave.
Breeze intends to fly to “neglected, forgotten” destinations, including many that have been abandoned by major airlines. Breeze is conducting test flights for the Federal Aviation Administration and may announce details of its routes and prices next week and may begin passenger transportation in May.
Plans for the two airlines began before the coronavirus pandemic broke out, but both will begin as Americans try to resume their travels after more than a year of blockades. More than 1 million Americans have flown every day in the past month and the number is expected to rise in the summer.
The last new airline in the United States was Virgin America, which began flying in 2007 and disappeared after being acquired by Alaska Airlines for $ 2.6 billion in 2016.
AVELO
Levy is a former executive of Allegiant Air and United Airlines who has finally realized a year-long dream of launching his own airline.
Avelo’s strategy comes directly from the low-cost airline’s manual originally written by Southwest in the 1970s and copied by others, including Allegiant. Part of the strategy is to limit yourself to secondary airports, which have lower costs and less congestion – planes land, take new passengers and take off quickly, spending more time in the air and less time on the ground.
BREEZE
Breeze did not specify where operations would begin, although he suggested it would be a popular recreational destination in the southeastern United States, including Florida. Neeleman says it’s the right time.
“Pleasure traffic is crazy right now. A lot of people have been vaccinated and the youngest and healthiest people are not afraid to travel, “Neeleman said in an interview. “There is a very high demand, probably higher than the number of seats available.”